Emergency stops in AP

[LukeT]

First time in 10k Tesla miles but I had occasion to hit the brakes hard the other day. Outside lane of a DC going at a good speed, towards 80, a van in the inside lane going quite slowly lurched right because something cut into his path from an outward going slip road (so when I reached him he was going very slowly indeed). Braked hard enough to feel ABS on dry tarmac, hard enough that it's a very infrequent, like once in more than 10k miles, occurrence for me.

I had been using AP and neither felt nor heard nothing from AP. I probably didn't get close enough to the van to trigger the frantic beeps but still the absence of any audible warning or noticeable input from the car is a little disconcerting. I guess the obvious explanation is that if the driver is already braking as hard as tyres will allow then the car doesn't need to, but still a little disconcerting nonetheless.

So I've still only ever really felt "phantom" braking from the car's systems, rather than genuinely necessary braking.

I may not have explained this very well, but i guess I'd have expected the car to brake earlier. It isn't hampered by my middle-aged human reaction times after all...

 

[pgkevet]

The reality is that the cars don't look far enough ahead and as an experienced driver you do and likey even with your middle-aged slow reflexes hit the brakes before the car was in the range it bothers monitoring. Think about us really old folk who bought the car because we know our reflexes aren't as good as 55yrs ago when we first started driving and expected the car to help look after us and have to look even further ahead....

 

[LukeT]

Yeah I think the range being monitored is too short to do a genuinely good job. Same is true in non-emergency situations, it just seems a bit late to me.

I find it hard to believe the car is really looking anywhere near as far ahead as the marketing stuff says it can:

I suppose there would've been a bit of modulation either end in this case so max braking not all of the time. I might've had over 100m, so the tyres would've still stopped the car in time with a later but consistently full braking force. But probably not if it'd been wet. Or colder. Or old tyres or whatever else going on.

On the bright side, my pads and disks probably benefitted from a spot of proper use.

 

[Roy W.]

I think it’s very difficult to make judgements about the effectiveness of the safety systems once you’ve braked manually.

To get an accurate picture we need scenarios where the driver doesn’t react, but the safety systems do.

 

[pow216]

I got myself into a situation (my own fault) where I felt like I was in danger of colliding with the car in front and had to stop on ABS. I was shaken up and also surprised the car didn't brake. Maybe there was never any real danger.

It would be good to see how these systems were tested.

 

[pgkevet]

Tested? Tesla approach to testing seems to be send out the software and see ... Why it'll be beta for many many years to come so save them carrying blame..

I stamped on the brakes recently to avoid killing some wildlife. Single track road with nowt behind but some loose hedge brushings. ABS kicked in, wildlife escaped and a message came up on the dash "Braking distance prolonged - Press firmly on the brakes". If the sodding ABS is activated how much harder am I supposed to be pressing? Bending the pedal stem?

 

[LukeT]

I think it’s very difficult to make judgements about the effectiveness of the safety systems once you’ve braked manually.

To get an accurate picture we need scenarios where the driver doesn’t react, but the safety systems do.

True. It would be interesting to see a bit of info eg video footage to understand what it will or won't do.

 

[LukeT]

Ncap testing vid popped up on my phone this morn. Emergency stop shown at 2 mins but its not AP, just collision avoidance (I assume).

 

[CMc1]

Ncap testing vid popped up on my phone this morn. Emergency stop shown at 2 mins but its not AP, just collision avoidance (I assume).

Clue is in the name. Automatic Emergency Braking. (AEB)

 

[elecTED]

Clue is in the name. Automatic Emergency Braking. (AEB)

AEB is the official term but it’s doing collision avoidance, so fine to call it collision avoidance too.

 

[-DB-]

I probably didn't get close enough to the van to trigger the frantic beeps but still the absence of any audible warning or noticeable input from the car is a little disconcerting

Whats you collision avoidance set too? You can set it to v early, early, etc. Not sure it would have made a difference in this scenario, but could explain it.

 

[Roy W.]

Whats you collision avoidance set too? You can set it to v early, early, etc. Not sure it would have made a difference in this scenario, but could explain it.

I suspect the setting might only affect how early the beeping starts, rather than when the AEB activates.

 

[LukeT]

Whats you collision avoidance set too? You can set it to v early, early, etc. Not sure it would have made a difference in this scenario, but could explain it.

I suspect the setting might only affect how early the beeping starts, rather than when the AEB activates.

Fair point. Mine is set to late to try to reduce the frightened beep-fest. Whether it makes a difference or not I don't know.

 

[kuruma]

speaking of the beep fest, I have mine set to early and enabled Joe Mode thinking this would quieten things down. Still scares the heck out of everyone though... no noticeable difference. What are others getting in Joe Mode?

 

[Adopado]

speaking of the beep fest, I have mine set to early and enabled Joe Mode thinking this would quieten things down. Still scares the heck out of everyone though... no noticeable difference. What are others getting in Joe Mode?

Agreed. Joe Mode appears to be a little quieter but nothing like as subdued as I hoped. I would be happy to have it lower. They should make it go louder only if the radio/music is above a certain level.

 

[LukeT]

Agreed. Joe Mode appears to be a little quieter but nothing like as subdued as I hoped. I would be happy to have it lower. They should make it go louder only if the radio/music is above a certain level.

Absolutely. We need Super-Joe Mode, at about half the volume, so those of us who aren't deaf still get all the audible signals loud and clear, just not louder than necessary.

 

[kuruma]

not just me then. Scares the hell out of passengers who have never heard a car make anything like that sort of noise before. They immediately think the Tesla is going to drive us into a ditch or something because they are paranoid that "self-driving" cars will kill us all.

 

[phillcom3]

I think it’s very difficult to make judgements about the effectiveness of the safety systems once you’ve braked manually.

To get an accurate picture we need scenarios where the driver doesn’t react, but the safety systems do.

I did have it do this for me last week I think. Some twat decided to left tourn sharply and it was enough for the system to slam on